Saturday, November 16, 2013

The other day I went 5 minutes down the road to Tintern - it was only about 10.30-11 in the morning so not that early but a large cloud of mist was still hanging over the valley across the river, frost was still on the ground and I vowed never to take for granted this beautiful place I find myself living in.

The abbey. I worked here for a few days over the summer.

The ruined church up the opposite Tintern Abbey. It was burned down in 1977.

I've been teaching Mostyn about Christmas. He likes to go to the garden centre and see the lights, point at 'father cripmas' and 'cripmas trees'. It's so exciting that he finally has a clue what is going on and he can talk to me and tell me what he thinks.

Speaking of mist - I took this picture on my last full day at the castle. It only hung around for a few minutes and then it was gone.

Dusky Brockweir photo from an exploration day last weekend. I love Brockweir - I aspire to live there.... the smoke from the chimney fires floated down the river

Crank the heating up (we can because we have had to install a brand new energy efficient boiler and the newly discovered damp parts of our house must be destroyed..), have a cup of tea, make a stew and enjoy this magical season everyone.

My lovely mother-in-common-law lent me her sewing machine so I could alter some curtains that had been draped all over our bedroom floor for months. I bought some pins from Wilkinsons and after an evening of toiling, swearing and one desperate phonecall when the bobbin thread ran out unexpectedly I managed to achieve this goal, if rather haphazardly. Luckily all the mashed up bits of thread and tangles are on the inside of the curtains hidden against the wall...

Feeling very proud of myself and fueled by the success that was only my second sewing machine experience I decided to make some Christmas bunting, as I knew how to do it from the bunting workshop hen party I attended in August.

Note fortifying glass of red wine

My friend had given me a small stack of Christmas fabric for my birthday, I went to a sewing shop (having had to ask my friend what the name of the foldy strip bunting joiny together bit was called - 'bias binding' if you were wondering) and in one evening I made this double sided mini Christmas bunting!:

I have never been a sewing type person so this is all very new to me and I never thought it would be so fun and satisfying. To be honest I never thought I could do it!

I have been wanting to make Mostyn an advent calender he can use every year and after some Googling I came across this.

The numbered pockets hold 24 tiny decorations and every day in December you put a new one on the tree!
Those ones are really American (ice skates? rabbits?) and mine are
going to be more traditional English (excuse me. 'British') - also, every one is going to be
different.

I used the sewing machine to make the cream background from one of a pair of cheap Tesco curtains I mistakenly bought the wrong size of. With the other curtain I'm going to make a makeshift blind for the kitchen window so it won't go to waste. I have left the top open to machine sew across later with some ribbon loops to hold the stick (a garden bamboo cane I had already).

Each pocket now made, this was before sewing the numbers on and the pockets down.

So far I have hand-sewed each pocket, cut out and sewed felt numbers on each one and then hand sewed them onto the background. I have cut out and hand sewed the Christmas tree too. It's taken me a few evenings of solid work in front of Netflix.

Next I have to make tiny fabric tree decorations 4cm across. I have made a list of the ones I want to make (my mum is going to make five of them) and I am starting that tonight. My list is as follows: star, gingerbread man, holly, christmas tree, christmas pudding, robin, father christmas head, reindeer head, snowflake, bauble, snowman, festive heart, train, candy cane, bell, wrapped present, candle in holder, wreath, mince pie, cracker, christmas cake, mistletoe, ivy, yule log.

This whole thing is costing me just a few pounds for two reels of thread, some cheap felt from a local shop and a few new buttons to complement the ones I found around the house so as I am not working this winter it fulfills my thrifty requirement too. I have quite a lot of random fabric now from the rug making for the decorations. My aforementioned amazing friend of wedding/bunting workshop fame posted me some of her craft/button/ribbon stash so that will help too. (I love you friend!)

I have also made another multicoloured rug out of Huw's old t-shirts for a Christmas present for some friends.

Saturday, November 9, 2013

So bored with the food I'm making recently - we need to cut out food spend down as much as possible for the winter so I'm putting these here to remind me when I get bored of what we eat.

I am meal planning main meals for the week - I managed to do this week only needing to get a few ingredients, (including flour for making own bread) and for lunches we can have home made soup, sandwiches and pasta.

Some kind of delicious scrambled eggs: scramble
the eggs and 75% fry them then put them in a bowl. fry quartered
tomatoes then when they're nice and soft, bung the eggs back in squirt
on some ketchup and stir. put the lid on and take off the heat and leave
to stand for a couple of minutes. serve with rice. a side of bacon is
nice. 2-3 eggs and 3-4 tomatoes per person.

Cullen
skink is good requires one piece of smoked haddock (good when on
reduced at supermarket) onions and potatoes.

One pan, fry chopped bacon and onion, add potatoes and carrots
and sweat, then throw in red lentils, a bit of veg stock and chopped
tomatoes and simmer for a while.

Fajitas:
fry chicken + fajita seasoning, also sliced peppers, onions, and other
veg if you want (like courgette or mushroom - all works), then eat with
tortillas and sour-cream, guacamole, mayo, or grated cheese (ideally all
of the above).